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About this project

PC/Mac/Linux + Vita (stretch goal)

Control Charlotte Seeker as she plunders the ship’s long lost technology, outwits its nearly impenetrable cybernetic defenses, and discovers its secrets. Featuring beautiful 16 bit-inspired lo-fi graphics, an action-packed original score, and gameplay influenced by The Binding of Isaac, A Link to the Past, and Resogun, Charlotte Seeker will test your skill, your reflexes, and your tenacity.

We want to take you along for the ride in discovering the secrets of this ship. Along with Charlotte of course!

Charlotte Seeker is built from the best bits of two genres: twin sticker shooters and roguelikes. Our take on the top-down action game uses twitchy, fast paced avoidance of bullets and an extreme amount of depth in the mechanics. For newcomers to these genres, making it through alive provides an immense amount of satisfaction. For those familiar, the focus comes down to increasing your multiplier and getting the highest score you can.

At the moment, what we have is a small version of the game. Part of what we would like to do next is scale it up. What this means is more environments, more powerups, and more enemies for Charlotte to explore, experiment with, and destroy. Right now there's only one environment but we've got plans for at least 5 more.

Use bullet time!

It's not balanced yet, but you can combine weapon powerups! The plan is to allow you to collect one powerup per area and have them stack. We've got ideas for all kinds of crazy effects that we'll talk more about later.

One of the reasons we are so happy to be working in the space of games is the depth and strength of the highly enthusiastic and devoted community. The BOILeR (Binding of Isaac League Racing) and Twitch are great examples of people gathering to support games they love, and we want to facilitate that as much as possible. We’re integrating Twitch streaming directly into the game so it's easy for everyone to share their experiences with the game with each other.

BEARCOWBOY is Joseph Hogwood and Dan Hernbrott.

Natural Born Coders

Joseph Hogwood - Joseph wears a lot of hats on this project, and that’s really what he loves about it, almost as much as he loves designing unique, impactful experiences and writing the code to bring them to life.

Dan Hernbrott - If only people spoke code instead of English, imagine the insights we could yield from this man's brain? Dan is responsible for making sure that the things that move around on screen move around in a way that looks good. He’s also crazy about it, so it’s kick butt that this project involves a lot of it!

The Kids Who Wouldn’t Leave Art Class

Rowdy Brent Eaton AKATNERB - He's worked on a lot of different games, mostly Cacto Loco. Brent tries his best to make pretty things with pixels. He likes long walks on the beach and vidya games.

Spencer Riedel - A composer who has devoted his life to video game music, and loves no other art form better. Spencer is especially excited about this project, because the style the game demands is exactly the kind of music he loves writing.

We believe in this game, which is why we’ve been paying for its development out of pocket for the past six months. It has been difficult, but we think what we have so far has been worth it. We are confident that with our current resources, we’ve done as much with the game as we can. That’s why we’re asking you to support us in realizing the project’s potential. With your help, we can finish the game with style.

BEARCOWBOY are not a studio that starts with a grand design and builds it piece by piece. We design as we’re building, remaining open to new possibilities. What started out as a Binding of Isaac clone became what you see today. Working on a game in this manner almost resembles a conversation, in it’s own way, the game “tells” you what it needs as you continually build and rebuild it. It is through this “dialogue” that we arrived at the game you see today.

$20,000

We're licensed PlayStation developers. We want to bring Charlotte Seeker to the PS Vita and while console development is more accessible than ever, there's still a monetary hurtle. Reaching this stretch goal will allow us to purchase the necessary equipment and licenses.

Risks and challenges

We’ve mitigated a lot of the risk already. We have our core technology working, we know our game is fun, it’s time for us to scale it up, and make it a complete experience. After much consideration, we consider $8000 to be the bare minimum necessary in order to fund this project. This must be considered if we do make our goal.

Any game ever made is subject to unknowns, (yes, even Generica Football 2342). We consider ourselves well equipped to deal with them, and pride ourselves on our ability to thrive in face of uncertainty.

FAQ

The $8,000 is just to pay our contractors and get some licenses. We need to compensate our amazing artist and composer for their hard work. Dan and Joseph aren't taking salary for this game until release, all of the money brought in is going right back out.

Pledge $10 or more

Pledge $15 or more

A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch and a digital copy of the OST.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2014

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Pledge $20 or more

22 backers

EARLY ACCESS

A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Mar 2014

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Pledge $30 or more

6 backers

PHYSICAL GOODIES

A button, keychain, and sticker + A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Apr 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

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Pledge $40 or more

6 backers

POSTER

A poster + A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Apr 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

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Pledge $50 or more

14 backers

T-SHIRT

A t-shirt + A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Apr 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

You selected

Pledge $80 or more

4 backers

T-SHIRT + POSTER

A t-shirt AND a poster + A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Apr 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

You selected

Pledge $150 or more

1 backer
Limited (19 left of 20)

WORM PLUSHIE

Our friend Bridget will handmake you a plushie of the Worm enemy from the game! + A t-shirt AND a poster + A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Jun 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

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Pledge $300 or more

0 backers
Limited (10 left of 10)

PIXEL ART PORTRAIT

Our artist will create a pixel rendition of you! + A t-shirt AND a poster + A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Jun 2014

Ships anywhere in the world

You selected

Pledge $400 or more

0 backers
Limited (8 left of 8)

SONG COVER

Our composer will cover a song of your choice in the game's style + A t-shirt AND a poster + A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Jul 2014

You selected

Pledge $500 or more

0 backers
Limited (5 left of 5)

DESIGN A MINIBOSS

Help design a Miniboss! We'll work with you to add a Miniboss to the game based off of your ideas + A t-shirt AND a poster + A copy of Charlotte Seeker on the platform of your choice at launch, a digital copy of the OST, and beta access to the game.

Estimated delivery:Jun 2014

Funding period

Jan 23, 2014 - Mar 1, 2014
(36 days)

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